Matteo Renzi takes swipe at Donald Trump

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Tuesday morning took a swipe at Donald Trump during his visit to the White House, saying the future of the world is about building bridges, “not walls.”

“Together we are facing the challenge to give the name to a new era together,” Renzi said, referencing Amerigo Vespucci whose legacy is left in the name of the continent. “My personal opinion is that the name of future has to be freedom. The name of the future has to be education not intolerance, sustainability not distraction, trust not hate, bridge[s] not walls. The name of the future has to be growth not austerity. In the time of fear, we have to give answer with the audacity of hope, not only in the United States.”

Renzi, who spoke in front of the White House with President Barack Obama by his side, went further than just name dropping Obama’s campaign tome “The Audacity of Hope,” though. The 41-year-old Italian leader said history will remember the nation’s 44th president kindly and gushed about Obama’s record.

“Under your leadership, a country hit by crisis started growing again,” Renzi said. “Day after day you have made changes that improve lives, help the environment and create opportunities for poor people. I think there are a lot of people who think politics is only about screaming and fighting each other, creating hate and division. You are a different, Mr. President. We are different.”

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Tom Cullem

Signor Renzi should go home and look at the current polls for his upcoming constitutional referendum: all of which point to a NO vote and the end of his political career.

All of these politicians have forgotten what happened when they all urged Britain to stay in the EU.

But then, I imagine the view from a state dinner in the White House is quite different from that of Peoria, just as the view for the London luvvies like Cumberbatch was quite different from the one in Oldham.

Posted on 10/18/16 | 7:33 PM CET

Giuseppe

It takes courage to bet one’s political future on a constitutional reform, in a country as impervious to change as Italy. That’s what Matteo Renzi is doing, rather than simply sticking to a middle course of his coalition government, as many PMs before him. And let’s be aware that this referendum is mandated by law, to validate legislation that the parliament failed to pass with a 2/3 vote. For its limitations, the reform is in every respect sensible (among other things, in doing away with a senate that currently doubles up as a parallel and superfluous legislature, and in introducing a fast-track option for government’s top shelf proposals). The overall number of parliamentarians (currently among the highest in the world) would be reduced by about 250, An outdated advisory body and a redundant tier of local government would also be cancelled by the reform. Still, in a country as divisive and unruly as Italy, political enemies and populist forces that take advantage from the existing crowded, multi-fraction parliament have congregated to use popular dissatisfaction towards the economy as a prime motivation to vote against the constitutional changes, thus undermining or ousting Renzi’s cabinet. For the sake of progressive constitutionalism and continued reform of one of the most ineffective government systems in the developed world, we have to hope the silent majority of sensible voters will say yes.